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Enduring Ideas In Macbeth Analysis

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Macbeth by William Shakespeare presents a concept wary of the damaging psychological and political consequences of ambition unchecked by morality. To prove this, the essay will chronologically connect a tragedy’s structural component, (initial incident, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement), with a corresponding stage of Macbeth’s rise and fall from tyranny. Additional themes like the supernatural, the corrupting power of ambition and kingship against tyranny explore the multitudinous expressions of his ambition. Analysis from themes reinforced by the greater concept will ultimately reveal enduring ideas about the common nature between Macbeth’s Shakespearean ambition with contemporary ambition.
Macbeth being a marionette in a universe that licenses the supernatural to toy with mortals, inadvertently reveals more about Macbeth than of the witches’ power during the ‘initial incident’ (Act 1 Scene 1 & 2). The witches remain ambiguous while appearing to wield great supernatural power through an implied affinity with the weather. The motif ‘in thunder, lightning, or in rain’ forecasts a recurrence of Macbeth’s brewing malevolence in predicting his ambition’s susceptibility to moral corruption. A technique used to demonstrate this susceptibility to immorality, (in this case ambition unchecked by ethics), employs a ‘foil’ in Banquo. Banquo is Macbeth’s foil because they polarise each other – Banquo does not act to

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